Anime Fighting Games: Fighting games are already very cartoonish, why not make them even more cartoonish?

I have played many anime fighting games over the course of my life and playing them over and over have made me realize something. They are a bizarre fucking set of fighting games. Now, of course this is going to happen, after all when you're trying to make something true to an anime's story, you have to give the game its own quirks and qualities to make it feel like you're playing the anime but it doesn't change how jarring it is when you play traditional fighting games then go to something as batshit crazy as an anime fighting game.

Now, that I'm done with the introduction, most of you are probably wondering, "What was the point of that?" The point of that was to introduce you to something I want to do and that is show why in the hell anime fighting games are... well... almost never going to be taken seriously by the video gaming community. I know no one asked for this, nor did they probably even know that anime fighters are a big joke in the community but I felt I would at least contribute. So this will be covered in parts over the course of whatever time period my attention span carries.

I'm fairly sure Guilty Gear and BlazBlue command a good deal of respect.

Guilty Gear and Blazblue aren't based on animes though, they are original properties.

EDIT: Blazblue is actually something of a joke in the fighting game community though, as it was revered when there was a huge dry spell in fighting games circa the middle of the 00s but when SF4 finally came out and stuff like Arcana Heart (Which is actually genuinely respected by the fighting game community surprisingly), everyone started to see the flaws of the game more and more and it turned into a huge butt of jokes.

Oh, I thought you were talking about anime styled fighting games, not fighting games based on a particular anime.

Oh I see where the mistake was, should've been clearer about that.

Fate/Unlimited Codes anyone?

It's no surprise that most anime fighters are jokes when the time it takes to development them is usually only a freaking year, if not less.

Rockstar_Bahamut wrote:

Fate/Unlimited Codes anyone?

I'll touch up on that and stuff like the JJBA fighting game and the FotNS fighting game as those are some of the few examples of anime fighting games that the fighting game community respects.

FotNS barely has any positive reviews according to Metacritc.

Are you trying to say that DBZ fighting games don't have the best fighting mechanics?

It used to be part of the tournament scene in Japan though and is actually given praise by a good portion of the western fighting game community.

Mind you, it's given nowhere near the praise that the JJBA game gets as it used to be a part of even the western tournament scene and is loved by pretty much everyone, fans of the manga, anime (All 12 of them), tourneyfags, casualfags, it's just a really fun game that is also really technical.

Marky Mark wrote:

Are you trying to say that DBZ fighting games don't have the best fighting mechanics?

WELL IF YOU WOULD WAIT THEN I COULD ANSWER THAT QUESTION IN A LENGTHY POST.

Now, a big part of what makes an AFG (Anime Fighting Game) so much different from a TFG (Traditional Fighting Game), the story mode. Now FG's by nature aren't very story heavy, it's usually seen as a side note in the game just for the sake of there being a reason as to why these people are punching each other in the face. In fact, Street Fighter's story is so horribly messed up that one of the heads of the SF games development has stated that the comic series made by UDON (Which is actually pretty good, you should give it a read) should be considered canon rather than the actual game's story. AFG's however, being based on an already existing property with a (Most likely) extensive history are going to usually be very story heavy. This isn't really much of a problem... except, it's usually done rather poorly. Rather than make the story in an arcade fashion (With cutscenes in between fights) most developers will find their own special way to make a unique story mode that involves some of the most interesting programming put into a fighting game.

Now, in order to coax you into playing the story mode most developers will usually have most of the cast in the game locked to you until you finish said story mode and this will sometimes include every little sidequest they have for you. Compare this to a TFG where most, if not all of the roster has been unlocked for you so you can enjoy them to your heart's content the second you put the game in. This is partially due to the fact that TFG's will usually use more of a game's memory on the roster and characters statistics rather than add several cutscenes, possibly a whole new gameplay style, free-roam world and a bunch of extra voice acting clips if they're voiced. Compare your regular TFG's normal arcade mode to an AFG's story mode and you'll see how jarring the contrast is.


You see that? You're looking at a total of 10+ hours of a story mode to unlock more than half of the remaining roster. It gets even worse in the DBZ games where you have like 10 shmucks from the start in a 40+ character game or the Tenkaichi games where it's 12 characters in 70+ character game.

Now, while an AFG story mode can have several unique things to themselves that can also make them good, they usually... turn up flat. Let's take a look at what things a normal story mode usually contains. Usually a story mode for an AFG will repeat the storyline from said anime, now if said anime has lasted for quite a while, then you've got lot of material to cover in that mode. In the case of the DBZ and Naruto games, this pretty much happens in every one of those games. So usually, in order to keep a story mode fresh, developers will add in a new story made specifically for the game so you have something more to keep you playing after the main story because developers seem to think you'll be sick of the game after playing their 10+ hour long story mode just for the sake of unlocking some damn characters. These stories will either be one of two things an actual new story or a different outcome on a certain plot-point in the story to see what would come of it (What-If's). Both of these are more often than not, poorly thought out, boring, and don't hold any realm of reality within the property they are holding the story on (See: The Rebellion of the Saiyans in BT3 and the whole Gedo Mark storyline from Ultimate Ninja 2), however... there are the rare gems that are genuinely good or there for the sake of just being funny (See: The Devilman vs Cold Family from BT3 and Piccolo training Videl in Raging Blast). However, despite being a mediocre fighting game, Bleach: Shattered Blade deserves praise solely for its entire story mode being a new story, even going so far as to including a playable character exclusive to the game and even giving him specific dialogue with certain characters as most future Bleach games that are not named Heat the Soul would go on to do.


This is the first boss of Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja 4. Now, this creature is an original creation made specifically for the game. Think about that for a minute, they featured the new storyline AT THE START OF THE STORY MODE. Rather than give you any incentive to make it to this story on its own the game pretty much wants to you destroy any hope you have of this story mode being good from the start, with generic looking boss and one of the most retarded weaknesses in the history of anything. Whoever can guess what this thing's weakness is without checking the Naruto Wiki and I will use an avatar of your choosing until the next update.

Most of the problem with a story mode's actual story however stems from one thing... MONOTONY. There is nothing more monotonous than sitting there watching cutscene after cutscene of something you've already seen animated and not letting you play the game or worse seeing it in every new game (IE: every new DBZ game and Zatch Bell). So what do developers do to try and break up the monotony? They add in special gameplay features to a story mode usually. Sometimes they'll actually make a whole new gameplay style just for the story mode (Every non-Nintendo console Naruto FG after the first UN, every new DBZ game and One Piece: Grand Adventure) and I'm sorry if I'm using mostly Naruto and DBZ games as examples right now but they have the most fighting games of any anime out there and are more susceptible to this than the others are. Hell, Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3 went so far as to make the story mode partially into a dating sim, although instead of getting a sex scene after a long slew of out of character WORDS WORDS WORDS, you get some token of gratitude that lets you use them in the story mode so you can finally stop playing as Naruto, not as good of a reward in comparison.

Then comes the next thing most story modes usually contain with hopes of breaking up the monotony, gimmicked fights. You all know what these are, especially those of us who were foolish enough to try and collect stars in Raging Blast. These will usually contain a condition where you have to do something to win a fight and advance a story or fight an enemy who is tougher than usual or your character is weaker than usual or all of them at once. This could be a good idea, but more than usually it is executed horribly and you get matches that are either still piss easy even though you're gimped out or stupidly hard and this is not more apparent than in the game... Zatch Bell: Mamodo Fury. In this game, pretty much every last fight is gimmicked, you can not win without doing some stupid requirement or worse fight an enormous enemy in a specific amount of time. These help to make the game even more monotonous and boring or just downright frustratingly stupid.

Then we segue into the next thing developers will try to do to break up the monotony, add mini-games. While this is not entirely exclusive to just anime fighting games (Mortal Kombat is filled with them, Street Fighter is famous for its Barrel and Car breaking mini-games and even SF3 had you kicking some basketballs Sean shot at you), the AFG's take it to a ludicrous level. Most of the Naruto games have them and none of them stay fun after doing them more than three times, the One Piece Grand Games have some of the most basic ones and they are boring as hell, and let's not even bring up DZ Infinite World's ring flying, the quality of which is only rivaled by Superman 64's rings. Not only do the mini-games not really flow with the game, they are also (Ironically) as monotonous as the actual story mode sometimes and they don't really add anything to the story mode. It especially doesn't help the case that the mini-games in AFG's are boring for being so long and drawn out and the story mode forcing you to play them multiple times compared to a TFG where these are usually about 30 seconds to a minute long and flow well with the game.


This is a mini game in One Piece Grand Adventure known as Snow Shovel. While Grand Adventure was a fun game, its mini games for the most part were boring and monotonous and I remember this game boring me, Tobi, and Haseo half to death constantly because it is nothing more than attacking fucking snow so it will go away. Yes, your mission as a pirate is to fucking attack snow.

Then comes my next subject, BOSSES. There is nothing more difficult in a fighting game usually than a boss. A fighting game boss is usually defined by two things, constant super armor or ridiculous AI that reads your movements and is extremely overpowered and in worst case scenarios, BOTH. Now, in order to make a boss fit into a fighting game and make it fun, it can't be obnoxious. It needs something to keep it different from the other parts of the game but still give it enough familiarity to make sure it flows well into the story mode. A good example of this are the bosses from the Ultimate Ninja Storm games, where the battles are over the top one-on-one fights with giants/regular enemies who are a bit more powerful than usual and consist of a lot of QTE's that make the fight even better than it was in the original material and in the case of Dragon Ball Z BT3 it gives the bosses of that game lots of cutscenes that give you things like struggles and the enemy being more aggressive but they are arguably the best part of the story. However, most anime fighting games once again have the problem with making their bosses too god damned boring or in some other cases frustratingly difficult. A good example of this is Deidara in Naruto Clash of the Ninja Accel (Or whatever the Wii Game is called) and how ridiculously strong he is. His defense is high, he does craploads of damage, barely any of your special moves work on him, he has super armor and knows combos and is intelligent. There's difficult and then there's just being unfair and not trying to make an actual fair boss. Another awful example is Baltro from Zatch Bell: Mamodo Fury, you can't actually hurt Baltro, what you need to do is aim for small points on his arms and legs for the robotic body to break apart. Fair enough, BUT the targets are so small and so is their hitbox, Baltro does craploads of damage and is enormous, and finally the aiming system in the game is awful so you will be missing half of your Zakers because of the awful camera. Finally, the coup de crap of bosses in anime fighting games, YuYu Hakusho Dark Tournament's last boss, Elder Toguro. There are no words to describe this boss only visual aid can describe how truly awful it is.


And just in case you thought that's all there was to it... he has a second form which is even worse. To show you it would possibly make you break down into tears. It is on record the only boss in the history of fighting games I have ever cheat codes to beat, even Omega Rugal from KoF 2001 is not as bad as this bastard is. Just ask Tobi, he has watched me waste a full hour (Maybe more) trying to beat this bastard.

I think I'm just about done with this subject but let me give you some examples of good story modes before I close this part out. The JJBA game has a wonderful story mode that manages to capture some of the quality of the manga BETTER THAN THE ACTUAL FUCKING ANIME DID (I believe I even, poorly mind you, LP'd the game's story mode). Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 1 and 2 both have excellent bosses, Bleach Shattered Blade put actual effort into its story and finally, DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 packs several fights into one part and makes it go by faster by adding an auto advancing mission button and even has a good amount of what-ifs to keep it fresh.

Although I swear to god, one day I will buy another copy of Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament (Which is probably 50 cents now) and beat that bastard Toguro with Tobi as my witness without any fucking cheat codes.



NEVER FORGET

You should have made a lengthy video analysis about all of this. While talking like Plinkett.

Nice wall of text what made you decide to write it?

Also that yu yu hakusho game looks terrible why did you even bother playing it.

I was younger and still a big YuYu Hakusho fan.

Very good.

Baal wrote:

Is that the Hulk?

Pretty much the Yu Yu Hakusho version of him. You ever wonder why the shirt always rips completely off but the pants never rip off? It happens with everyone.

Naruto Clash of Ninja series is very competitive. Think I've said this before.

*continues to talk to the wall*

DBZ BT3 on the wii (hurr durr triple rhyme) has reminded me (there's four rhymes) that it has a positively stupid amount of characters--both a blessing and a curse, since half of them are just the Z fighters and their different iterations through the series. to explain, there are 5 different goku's as playable characters. FIVE. and that's not counting lookalikes like turles or bardock. and then there's filler characters like salza and frieza soldier--that's right, he's so unimportant and forgettable that they didnt give him a name.

The characters range from ridiculously overpowered (the standard fare, SS4 and regular Gogeta, LSS broly, Super 17, Omega shenron, etc.) to laughably weak: cell jr., saibamen (or however the fuck its spelled), the random mook characters, most of the cast from dragonball, and of course, hercule. nothing short of an absurdly skilled player with an amazing Z item setup can make them any good.

then there's the hard-to-figure characters that are either generic in comparison to the two earlier groups (androids 16-20/gero, frieza's earlier forms, cell's earlier forms, the giant characters, tapion, pikon, most of the movie characters), or those that seem weak but are terrifying if played right, like Arale and Devilman. The latter especially so, since his devilmite beam does freakish damage to evil characters, but almost nothing against good characters (and absolutely no damage to kid goku).


The battle system is very smooth (if confusing to learn since everything is named funny for the tutorial mode) and very similar to the feel of the series, but it pretty much carries the same power levels over from the show (I.E. SS4 Gogeta > Everyone-except-old-krillin-who's-conveniently-the-only-character-in-the-series-who-doesn't-appear-in-this-game), destroying the overall balance.

well, that and androids other than super 17 are fucked from the start unless you give them massive ki regeneration Z items.

Maskull wrote:

The battle system is very smooth (if confusing to learn since everything is named funny for the tutorial mode) and very similar to the feel of the series, but it pretty much carries the same power levels over from the show (I.E. SS4 Gogeta > Everyone-except-old-krillin-who's-conveniently-the-only-character-in-the-series-who-doesn't-appear-in-this-game), destroying the overall balance.

well, that and androids other than super 17 are fucked from the start unless you give them massive ki regeneration Z items.

Broli is more powerful in this game than SSJ4 Gogeta is. And the androids don't need any supplements for their energy unless you plan on abstaining from any kind of decent melee action.

As for power levels being carried over from the show... Mid Goku's Ultimate is the strongest, Giant Slug has the strongest melee of everyone and Spopovich is physically more powerful than SSJ3 Goku.

Ace wrote:

Naruto Clash of Ninja series is very competitive. Think I've said this before.

*continues to talk to the wall*

Yes, a fighting game series is competitive, how revolutionary. Now let's see it at EVO or a legit big fighting game tournament and we will talk.

What's so competitive about Naruto game when on Online the only thing people do is grab spam